International GPA question

[NeuroNerd86]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone can help me with my international GPA dilemma. Basically, I attended a university in another country for 2 years prior to moving to the US. Grading system there is on 5.0 scale, but the official transcript does not have grades, it has adjectives instead - i.e., if the grade is 5, it says "excellent", if it's a 4, it says "good" and so on. Therefore, there is no official GPA on the transcript. However, unofficially, people frequently use the "average grade" for general reference, which is not GPA per se, because it doesn't take number of units into consideration (there is no such thing as units in that system), so it's just all scores summed up and divided by the number of classes. With that being said, I know that my average grade is about 4.6 out of 5, but my transcript doesn't state that explicitly. All applications require to write in the GPA at every institution attended. So my question is - should I put in that 4.6 on a 5 point scale, or should I just leave it blank? I feel that since it's a decent average it is worth mentioning and I'm not lying about anything, but I don't want any confusion either.

Did anyone else have a similar issue?

thank you!!

[JerryLandis]

I would leave it blank, and try to send some kind of conversion chart with your transcript. If you enter 4.6 in the box, it may be okay, since it would be obvious that you weren't marked on a 4.0 scale. I suppose I would do that if you are required to fill in the box, i.e. if the application program won't allow you to submit your application without filling it out. If not though, I would leave it blank, as the person reading your application will probably understand that your university simply does not use the American GPA scale. I attend a university with a 20 point scale, but there is a conversion chart for GPAs so I just entered my converted GPA into the question box.

Just a curious question, does anyone know if there are American universities where you can go above a 4.0? I know that's common enough at some high schools that use a weighted GPA system for honors/AP students. I got a "4.6" in high school due to this curious phenomenon, but I have no idea what my real GPA would have come out to.

[ridgey]

I'm an international student and I just leave GPA blank. Not had a problem yet.

If you want to get an idea of where you stand, theres a conversion tool buried somewhere on the WES website. WES is used by lots of schools to evaluate foreign credentials (I don't work for them, honest!). Be wary of what you find just hunting on the web. People trying to be helpful can be very wrong. My school uses a 9 point system, but the lowest point (1) is the lowest passing grade (c+). Lots of people on websites have assumed it's just a matter of scale, and suggest dividing by 2.25 to get the 4.0 equivalent. So a B (5 on the 9 point scale) would be 1.X. Find an "official" conversion.